St. Petersburg (AFP)
Fiona Ferro will not meet Océane Dodin, who managed to qualify earlier, in the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament in Saint Petersburg: the 58th world player gave way to Kazhake Elena Rybakina (25th), victorious 6-3, 6-4 .
After the loss of the first set, Fiona Ferro led 3 games to 0 in the second round, but Rybakina then aligned 5 games in a row to finally win in 1 h 15 min of play.
So Kazhake will meet Dodin in the quarterfinals. A big piece for the French, since Rybakina won since the beginning of the year a title in Hobart, disputed a final in Shenzhen, and went from 36th to 25th in the world.
Dodin, 159th player in the world, nevertheless managed a feat by beating Briton Johanna Konta (14th) in two sets 6-3, 6-4.
Expeditious in the previous round against Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova (6-2, 6-2), she relied on her first ball to master the experienced Konta and pocket the victory on her second match ball.
"My hands were shaking in the last game before concluding," said the Frenchwoman, whose highest ranking was 46th place in June 2017.
At the start of the day, Alizé Cornet (61st) dispatched Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, who fell to 40th in the world and far from the level which had led her to enter her name in a 1st round match 6-1, 6-2 of Roland-Garros in 2017.
Cornet will continue the adventure with a confrontation in the round of 16 with the Greek Maria Sakkari (21st).
© 2020 AFP